The basketball season is now upon us and players are looking forward to playing better and having more successful seasons. Many players in high school and college, and even in recreational leagues, want to not only play better but to score more, jump higher, be quicker and faster, be able to last longer, and get more enjoyment and satisfaction by more playing.
To fulfill these goals, the players should have undergone a conditioning program well before the start of the season. However, because this is often not the case, the players must get in shape and do some training while in season. Thus the type of training that you do in-season is critical to whether you will become a better player.
For example, going on a general strength training and conditioning program to gain greater strength of the muscles involved in shooting may interfere with your shot execution. It may, however, help your all-around court movements and ability to fight for the ball. This depends upon your initial strength levels. Youngsters may benefit greatly by becoming stronger in regards to their play, but for most players, who are experienced and have been playing for many years, the additional strength at this time usually interferes with their physical and technical abilities.
More importantly, a conditioning program to gain more general strength and other physical qualities takes a minimum of six to eight weeks before there are any appreciable gains. Thus, it takes too long before you start seeing results that can be adapted to your game. Keep in mind that at this time, you will be playing more with less time to do outside training to improve your abilities.
However, there is a way of improving your technique and strength. You can do specialized exercises that duplicate what you do in execution of basketball skills. For example, if you want to run faster, doing exercises such as the knee drive, pawback, and lunge with resistance from rubber tubing as in the Total Athlete System™ can make you appreciably faster while at the same time improving your running technique. Exercises that duplicate the joint actions seen in running enable you to run faster as you become stronger. There is no neuromuscular interference.
If you add exercises such as hip abduction and the side lunge, you can also become much quicker. The muscles and actions involved in these exercises duplicate the cutting actions which are the key to quickness. Your ability to better execute cutting actions enables you to keep up with other players so they don’t get by you and in most cases, enable you to get by your opponent.
Specialized strength, flexibility, and explosive exercises that duplicate specific sports skills will not build muscle bulk or interfere with your court movements or shooting. In fact, they do just the opposite; they improve your ability to do the skills involved. An added benefit is that doing such exercises will show improvement very quickly. In addition, the exercises can be done at home or in the gym, don’t take a great amount of time and can be done in conjunction with your playing.
The basic equipment needed is rubber tubing as in the Total Athlete System™, which allows you to do the exercises correctly, safely and effectively. With some of the special attachments in this set, you can duplicate different movements and vary the amount of resistance used in the different joint actions. For example, a non-slip hip belt for the lunge, side lunge, and hip rotation, ankle strap for the knee drive, a dual attachment strap so you can hook the rubber tubing onto a door in the home or around a beam or a post at home or in the gym. Different tension cords can be attached separately or collectively for greater resistance or same tension cords used to better balance the body in certain moves.
Even though many specific exercises can be done with the Total Athlete System™, to see appreciable improvement in your basketball specific skills, most players need only do about six to eight exercises that you can accomplish in about twenty minutes. This is true only of special exercises that duplicate what occurs in execution of the skills seen in basketball play. Because of this, specialized exercises are one of the quickest and most effective ways you can train while in season to see better overall performance almost immediately.
For more details on the exercises mentioned and other specific exercises that you can do to improve your basketball game, see Explosive Basketball Training. See also Man to Man Offense on HSHD.